Expedition Global Eagle - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Expedition Global Eagle was the first attempt in history to circumnavigate the globe using an autogyro

Autogyro

An autogyro , also known as gyroplane, gyrocopter, or rotaplane, is a type of rotorcraft which uses an unpowered rotor in autorotation to develop lift, and an engine-powered propeller, similar to that of a fixed-wing aircraft, to provide thrust...

. The flight was attempted in 2004 by Warrant Officer

Warrant Officer

A warrant officer is an officer in a military organization who is designated an officer by a warrant, as distinguished from a commissioned officer who is designated an officer by a commission, or from non-commissioned officer who is designated an officer by virtue of seniority.The rank was first...

Barry Jones using an open-cockpit autogyro which he named Global Eagle. The purpose of the mission was twofold; to set the world record and to raise funds for three charities; the Dyslexia

Dyslexia

Dyslexia is a very broad term defining a learning disability that impairs a person's fluency or comprehension accuracy in being able to read, and which can manifest itself as a difficulty with phonological awareness, phonological decoding, orthographic coding, auditory short-term memory, or rapid...

Institute, the NSPCC

NSPCC

The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children is a United Kingdom charity campaigning and working in child protection.-History:...

and the British Red Cross

British Red Cross

The British Red Cross Society is the United Kingdom branch of the worldwide impartial humanitarian organisation the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. The society was formed in 1870, and is a registered charity with over 31,000 volunteers and 2,600 staff. At the heart of their work...

. Jones embarked on his mission on 26 April 2004 from the Museum of Army Flying

Museum of Army Flying

The Museum of Army Flying is an award-winning British military aviation museum about the history of flying in the British Army. It is located beside the Army Air Corps Centre in Middle Wallop, close to Andover in Hampshire, England....

, Middle Wallop

Middle Wallop

Middle Wallop is the local name given to an area between the two Parishes of Over Wallop and Nether Wallop in Hampshire, England. As it does not have its own parish technically it does not exist, however road signs and maps make reference to the location and have done so since the 18th century,...

, Hampshire

Hampshire

Hampshire is a county on the southern coast of England in the United Kingdom. The county town of Hampshire is Winchester, a historic cathedral city that was once the capital of England. Hampshire is notable for housing the original birthplaces of the Royal Navy, British Army, and Royal Air Force...

with an honourary military helicopter

Military helicopter

A military helicopter is a helicopter that is either specifically built or converted for use by military forces. A military helicopter's mission is a function of its design or conversion...

armada

Naval fleet

A fleet, or naval fleet, is a large formation of warships, and the largest formation in any navy. A fleet at sea is the direct equivalent of an army on land....

accompanying him during the send off. The expedition was supported by a team of soldiers based at Dishforth

Dishforth

Dishforth is a village and civil parish in the Harrogate district of North Yorkshire, England. It is near RAF Dishforth, a local Army Air Corps helicopter base. The village is close to the A1 and the A168. The original route of the Great North Road runs through the village but an airbase was built...

, North Yorkshire

North Yorkshire

North Yorkshire is a non-metropolitan or shire county located in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England, and a ceremonial county primarily in that region but partly in North East England. Created in 1974 by the Local Government Act 1972 it covers an area of , making it the largest...

, United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

.

The expedition encountered difficulties while flying through Europe, including the Alps

Alps

The Alps is one of the great mountain range systems of Europe, stretching from Austria and Slovenia in the east through Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Germany to France in the west....

and the Middle East

Middle East

The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...

and it was downgraded due to flight delays before finally being abandoned after it landed in Guwahati

Guwahati

Guwahati, Pragjyotishpura in ancient Assam formerly known as Gauhati is a metropolis,the largest city of Assam in India and ancient urban area in North East India, with a population of 963,429. It is also the largest metropolitan area in north-eastern India...

, India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

around the onset of monsoon

Monsoon

Monsoon is traditionally defined as a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation, but is now used to describe seasonal changes in atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with the asymmetric heating of land and sea...

season. Officer Jones had set up a website where he described the details of each stage of his trip. The images of the flight as well as details of each stage of the flight were regularly uploaded on the website.

History

The autogyro is the last remaining type of aircraft which has not a yet been used to circumnavigate the globe. The expedition was the first attempt ever to fly an autogyro around the Earth, a trip of about 25,000 miles (40,000 km). In February 2003, a year before the circumnavigation attempt, the Global Eagle broke the world range record by flying non-stop from Culdrose in Cornwall

Cornwall

Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...

to Wick

Wick, Highland

Wick is an estuary town and a royal burgh in the north of the Highland council area of Scotland. Historically, it is one of two burghs within the county of Caithness, of which Wick was the county town. The town straddles the River Wick and extends along both sides of Wick Bay...

in Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

, a total of 580 miles (928 km), after a flight lasting 7 hours and 23 minutes, breaking the old record of either 543.27 statute miles (874.32 km) or 869.23 km (540.11 mi) held by Wing Commander

Wing Commander (rank)

Wing commander is a commissioned rank in the Royal Air Force and the air forces of many other Commonwealth countries...

Ken Wallis

Wing Commander Kenneth Horatio Wallis MBE, DEng , CEng, FRAeS, FSETP, PhD , RAF , is one of the leading exponents of autogyros. He has held 34 records relating to them.-Early life:...

. During the record-breaking trip Jones drifted toward North America

North America

North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

due to a broken radio, before finally correcting the course. While flying over Wales

Wales

Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...

he had to fly over the clouds in the open cockpit of the autogyro. He also flew for approximately 50 miles (80 km) over the North Sea

North Sea

In the southwest, beyond the Straits of Dover, the North Sea becomes the English Channel connecting to the Atlantic Ocean. In the east, it connects to the Baltic Sea via the Skagerrak and Kattegat, narrow straits that separate Denmark from Norway and Sweden respectively...

which, as he acknowledged during an interview, was a dangerous course due to the fact the autogyro only had one engine and therefore in case it cut-off there would be no alternative solution but to crash land in the water. The average flight altitude was 4,000 ft and the average speed was 70 mph. In 2004, Jones, a Lynx helicopter pilot, was one of 75 licensed autogyro pilots in the UK. Later in 2003 the original Eagle suffered an accident during landing.

The circumnavigation attempt trip commenced on 26 April 2004 under the patronage of General Sir Michael Walker, Chief of Defence Staff

Chief of the Defence Staff (United Kingdom)

The Chief of the Defence Staff is the professional head of the British Armed Forces, a senior official within the Ministry of Defence, and the most senior uniformed military adviser to the Secretary of State for Defence and the Prime Minister...

of the British Armed Forces

British Armed Forces

The British Armed Forces are the armed forces of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.Also known as Her Majesty's Armed Forces and sometimes legally the Armed Forces of the Crown, the British Armed Forces encompasses three professional uniformed services, the Royal Navy, the...

and it was supposed to last about three and a half months. The autogyro flight was to have touched down in twenty five countries with frequent landings due to the limited range of the autogyro. The Global Eagles route was planned to approximately follow the flightpath taken by Brian Milton

Brian Milton

Brian Milton is a journalist and adventurer form the United Kingdom. His first major expedition took place in 1968 when he drove an Austin 7 Ruby across the Sahara Desert to meet his fiancée....

in 1998 when he became the first person to circumnavigate the globe using a microlight. Due to technical difficulties with the original gyrocopter the gyro at launch was supplied by the Italian manufacturer Magni Gyro which also supplied spare parts and technical assistance to the expedition. The new gyro featured a new colour scheme and the eagle logo was not used.

The expedition successfully completed the Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

an leg of the journey which included Oostende, Belgium

Belgium

Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

, Friedrichshafen

Friedrichshafen

This article is about a German town. For the Danish town, see Frederikshavn, and for the Finnish town, see Fredrikshamn .Friedrichshafen is a university city on the northern side of Lake Constance in Southern Germany, near the borders with Switzerland and Austria.It is the district capital of the...

, Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

, the Alps

Alps

The Alps is one of the great mountain range systems of Europe, stretching from Austria and Slovenia in the east through Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Germany to France in the west....

, Bolzano, Trento

Trento

Trento is an Italian city located in the Adige River valley in Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol. It is the capital of Trentino...

, Casaleggio Novara

Casaleggio Novara

Casaleggio Novara is a comune in the Province of Novara in the Italian region Piedmont, located about 80 km northeast of Turin and about 10 km northwest of Novara...

, the location of the Magni airfield in Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

, Forlì

Forlì

Forlì is a comune and city in Emilia-Romagna, Italy, and is the capital of the province of Forlì-Cesena. The city is situated along the Via Emilia, to the right of the Montone river, and is an important agricultural centre...

, Pescara

Pescara

Pescara is the capital city of the Province of Pescara, in the Abruzzo region of Italy. As of January 1, 2007 it was the most populated city within Abruzzo at 123,059 residents, 400,000 with the surrounding metropolitan area...

, Bari

Bari

Bari is the capital city of the province of Bari and of the Apulia region, on the Adriatic Sea, in Italy. It is the second most important economic centre of mainland Southern Italy after Naples, and is well known as a port and university city, as well as the city of Saint Nicholas...

, Italy

Italy

, Corfu

Corfu

Corfu is a Greek island in the Ionian Sea. It is the second largest of the Ionian Islands, and, including its small satellite islands, forms the edge of the northwestern frontier of Greece. The island is part of the Corfu regional unit, and is administered as a single municipality. The...

, Athens

Athens

Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...

, Mykonos

Mykonos

Mykonos is a Greek island, part of the Cyclades, lying between Tinos, Syros, Paros and Naxos. The island spans an area of and rises to an elevation of at its highest point. There are 9,320 inhabitants most of whom live in the largest town, Mykonos, which lies on the west coast. The town is also...

, Kos

Kos

Kos or Cos is a Greek island in the south Sporades group of the Dodecanese, next to the Gulf of Gökova/Cos. It measures by , and is from the coast of Bodrum, Turkey and the ancient region of Caria. Administratively the island forms a separate municipality within the Kos peripheral unit, which is...

and Rhodes

Rhodes

Rhodes is an island in Greece, located in the eastern Aegean Sea. It is the largest of the Dodecanese islands in terms of both land area and population, with a population of 117,007, and also the island group's historical capital. Administratively the island forms a separate municipality within...

, in Greece

Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....

and the military base of Akrotiri in Cyprus

Cyprus

Cyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is a Eurasian island country, member of the European Union, in the Eastern Mediterranean, east of Greece, south of Turkey, west of Syria and north of Egypt. It is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.The earliest known human activity on the...

, albeit with delays. The journey through the Alps was very difficult because Jones had to climb to 10,000 feet over the Alps where it was extremely windy. Jones also had to make a forced landing

Forced landing

A forced landing is a landing by an aircraft made under factors outside the pilot's control, such as the failure of engines, systems, components or weather which makes continued flight impossible. For a full description of these, see article on Emergency landing...

in the Italian Alps. Also the trip from Athens to Akrotiri over the Mediterranean proved very frightening because flying over the water, with only a few ships below, meant that it would be very difficult to get any help in case of a mishap. From Akrotiri, Global Eagle went to Amman

Amman

Amman is the capital of Jordan. It is the country's political, cultural and commercial centre and one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. The Greater Amman area has a population of 2,842,629 as of 2010. The population of Amman is expected to jump from 2.8 million to almost...

, Jordan

Jordan

Jordan , officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan , Al-Mamlaka al-Urduniyya al-Hashemiyya) is a kingdom on the East Bank of the River Jordan. The country borders Saudi Arabia to the east and south-east, Iraq to the north-east, Syria to the north and the West Bank and Israel to the west, sharing...

, Turaif

Turaif

Turaif is a town in northern Saudi Arabia, close to the border with Jordan. It is located at around . It has a population of about 41,785.The city of Turaif as one of the cities that have been established because of the presence of international oil pipeline.It has a Domestic airport other...

, Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...

, Arar

Arar

Mustafa Wahbi Al-Tal, better known as Arar , was a Jordanian poet, lawyer, teacher, judge, political agitator and philosopher....

, Hafr Al-Batin, Qaisumah

Qaisumah

Qaisumah is a town belongs to Hafar Al-Batin, Saudi Arabia. It is located at around ....

, Jubail

Jubail

Jubail , is a city in the Eastern province on the Persian Gulf coast of Saudi Arabia. It consists of the Old Town of Al Jubail, which was originally a small fishing village, up to 1975 and the new industrial area....

, Bahrain

Bahrain

' , officially the Kingdom of Bahrain , is a small island state near the western shores of the Persian Gulf. It is ruled by the Al Khalifa royal family. The population in 2010 stood at 1,214,705, including 235,108 non-nationals. Formerly an emirate, Bahrain was declared a kingdom in 2002.Bahrain is...

, Abu Dhabi

Abu Dhabi

Abu Dhabi , literally Father of Gazelle, is the capital and the second largest city of the United Arab Emirates in terms of population and the largest of the seven member emirates of the United Arab Emirates. Abu Dhabi lies on a T-shaped island jutting into the Persian Gulf from the central western...

in the Arab Emirates and Muscat, Oman

Muscat, Oman

Muscat is the capital of Oman. It is also the seat of government and largest city in the Governorate of Muscat. As of 2008, the population of the Muscat metropolitan area was 1,090,797. The metropolitan area spans approximately and includes six provinces called wilayats...

.

Over Jordan and Saudi Arabia, Jones had to fly over the desert

Desert

A desert is a landscape or region that receives an extremely low amount of precipitation, less than enough to support growth of most plants. Most deserts have an average annual precipitation of less than...

for hours and to battle sandstorms

Dust storm

A dust / sand storm is a meteorological phenomenon common in arid and semi-arid regions. Dust storms arise when a gust front or other strong wind blows loose sand and dirt from a dry surface. Particles are transported by saltation and suspension, causing soil to move from one place and deposition...

and hot weather at low altitudes while at higher altitudes it would become very cold. Further, communication was impossible while flying over the desert because of a lack of ground stations and the atmospheric conditions prevailing in the area. While there, Jones had to communicate with commercial aircraft flying over the desert which would then relay his messages to the ground stations at the local airports. A Saudia flight helped him approach and land at Turaif

Turaif

.

Subsequently Jones arrived at Abu Dhabi

Abu Dhabi

and from there he flew to Muscat, Oman

Muscat, Oman

and then Gawadar and Ormara

Ormara

Ormara is a port city located in the Makran or coastal region of Balochistan Province in Pakistan. It is located 360 km west of Karachi and 230 km east of Gwadar on the Arabian Sea. This port is also mentioned in Periplus of the Erythraean Sea as Oraea.- History :Ormara is an old...

in Pakistan

Pakistan

Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...

and, finally, Karachi

Karachi

Karachi is the largest city, main seaport and the main financial centre of Pakistan, as well as the capital of the province of Sindh. The city has an estimated population of 13 to 15 million, while the total metropolitan area has a population of over 18 million...

. The flight from Muscat to Karachi broke the record for the longest flight over water by an autogyro and lasted six hours.

From Karachi, Jones flew the autogyro to India

India

where it navigated to Ahmedabad

Ahmedabad

Ahmedabad also known as Karnavati is the largest city in Gujarat, India. It is the former capital of Gujarat and is also the judicial capital of Gujarat as the Gujarat High Court has its seat in Ahmedabad...

, Udaipur

Udaipur

Udaipur , also known as the City of Lakes, is a city, a Municipal Council and the administrative headquarters of the Udaipur district in the state of Rajasthan in western India. It is located southwest of the state capital, Jaipur, west of Kota, and northeast from Ahmedabad...

, Jaipur

Jaipur

Jaipur , also popularly known as the Pink City, is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Rajasthan. Founded on 18 November 1727 by Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II, the ruler of Amber, the city today has a population of more than 3.1 million....

, New Delhi

New Delhi

New Delhi is the capital city of India. It serves as the centre of the Government of India and the Government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi. New Delhi is situated within the metropolis of Delhi. It is one of the nine districts of Delhi Union Territory. The total area of the city is...

, Bareilly

Bareilly

Bareilly is a prominent city in Bareilly district in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. Standing on the Ramganga river, it is the capital of the Bareilly division and the geographical region Rohilkhand...

, Gorakhpur

Gorakhpur

Gorakhpur is a city in the eastern part of the state of Uttar Pradesh in India, near the border with Nepal. It is the administrative headquarters of Gorakhpur District and Gorakhpur Division. Gorakhpur is one of the proposed capitals of the Purvanchal state which is yet to be formed...

, Patna

Patna

Paṭnā , is the capital of the Indian state of Bihar and the second largest city in Eastern India . Patna is one of the oldest continuously inhabited places in the world...

and Baghdogra, sometimes through sandstorms, and finally landed during monsoon

Monsoon

rains in the army base of Guwahati

Guwahati

. The delays incurred in the European leg of the journey proved damaging to the effort because Jones was forced to arrive in India during monsoon season. The monsoons he encountered were the worst in 20 years with 100 people killed in the Guwahati area alone. The technical difficulties encountered in India, due to the weather, led to the downgrading of the purpose of the mision from circumnavigating the globe to flying to Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

.

Jones and his support team then returned to the UK in order to revise the plans for the truncated trip to Australia. Upon returning to India they discovered that the gyro while at the army base of Guwahati

Guwahati

had spent time submerged in water. The transponder

Transponder

In telecommunication, the term transponder has the following meanings:...

, the radio

Radio

Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...

and the rest of the instruments were damaged. As well, the flying controls and the cables needed to be replaced. The damage totalled BP₤10,000 and could not be raised on time. In addition the team members, being soldiers, had to return to active duty

Active duty

Active duty refers to a full-time occupation as part of a military force, as opposed to reserve duty.-Pakistan:The Pakistan Armed Forces are one of the largest active service forces in the world with almost 610,000 full time personnel due to the complex and volatile nature of Pakistan's...

by early 2005. This led to the attempt being abandoned. The trip when cancelled had covered between 6,550–7,500 miles (10,480–12,100 km) and had lasted for four months due to the delays experienced, averaging approximately 350 miles per flight day. Even though the expedition did not succeed in its goal of circumnavigating the globe it demonstrated the wide range of conditions under which a light, open-cockpit autogyro could operate.

Completed route details

The detailed route, times and other details of the completed trip were as follows:

26 April 2004: Departure from Middle Wallop — Ostend (Belgium): Total distance 300 km, including 70 km over the North Sea
North Sea
In the southwest, beyond the Straits of Dover, the North Sea becomes the English Channel connecting to the Atlantic Ocean. In the east, it connects to the Baltic Sea via the Skagerrak and Kattegat, narrow straits that separate Denmark from Norway and Sweden respectively...
30 April 2004: Ostend (EBOS, Belgium) — Friedrichshaven (Germany): — 630 km Total distance since start : 930 km
3 May 2004: Friedrichshafen (Germany) — Bolzano — Trento
Trento
Trento is an Italian city located in the Adige River valley in Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol. It is the capital of Trentino...

— Casaleggio, Novara (Italy): — Total distance: 457 km
3–6 May 2004: While on the way to Bolzano 60 km/h wind gusts cause Eagle to force land on a sports field 30 km north of Bolzano in the Alps.
7 May 2004: Departure from Bolzano at 0900z and landing at Magni airfield in Casaleggio, Italy 13:22 local time
10 May 2004: Depart Magni at 12:00 local time, refuelling at Forlì
Forlì
Forlì is a comune and city in Emilia-Romagna, Italy, and is the capital of the province of Forlì-Cesena. The city is situated along the Via Emilia, to the right of the Montone river, and is an important agricultural centre...

LIPK 11:23–13:00 — refuelling at Pescara
Pescara
Pescara is the capital city of the Province of Pescara, in the Abruzzo region of Italy. As of January 1, 2007 it was the most populated city within Abruzzo at 123,059 residents, 400,000 with the surrounding metropolitan area...

LIBP — Arrival Bari LIBD (Italy) 1700 — Trip distance: 828 km Total distance since start : 2,215 km
12 May 2004: Lift-off from Bari at 10:21 local time — refuelling at Ioannis Kapodistrias International Airport Corfu
Corfu
Corfu is a Greek island in the Ionian Sea. It is the second largest of the Ionian Islands, and, including its small satellite islands, forms the edge of the northwestern frontier of Greece. The island is part of the Corfu regional unit, and is administered as a single municipality. The...

LGKR. — Arrival at Athens Airport at 16:30 — Trip distance: 700 km Total distance since start : 2,915 km
13 May 2004: Departure from Athens 0800 — Refuelling at Myconos — refuelling at Kos. Strong headwinds force landing at Rhodes LGRD.
14 May 2004: Early morning lift-off from Rhodes and landing in Akrotiri (Cyprus) following a flight of more than 3 hours over the Mediterranean, with ground speed of sometimes over 170 km/h. Trip distance: 907 km Total distance since start: 3,822 km
16 May 2004: Akrotiri (Cyprus) — Amman (Jordan) : 420 km
17–19 May 2004: Break — 3 days off.
20 May 2004: Amman — Turaif (Saudi Arabia) — Ar'Ar : 580 km
21 May 2004: Ar'Ar — Hafr-AL-Batin : 420 km
22 May 2004: Hafr-AL-Batin — Al Quasumah — Jubail (Saudi Ar) — Bahrain: 593 km. Total distance since start : 5,835 km
24 May 2004: Bahrain — Abu Dhabi (Arab Emirates) : 452 km
26 May 2004: Abu Dhabi — Muscat (Oman): 410 km. Total distance since start: 6,697 km
30 May 2004: Muscat (Oman) — Karachi (Pakistan) : 880 km over the sea
1 June 2004: Karachi — Ahmedabad (India) : 592 km.
2 June 2004: Udaipur — Jaipur: 525 km.
3 June 2004: Jaipur — Delhi (India): 249 km — Sandstorms. Total distance since start: 8,943 km. Barry Jones sick with stomach disease, resting.
7 June 2004: Jones recovers, but the monsoon season has started. Waiting for delivery of administrative clearances
9 June 2004: Departs from Indira Gandhi International Airport (New Delhi, India) — Bareilly: 220 km. Barry Jones forced to return to Delhi due to inclement weather.
10 June 2004: Delhi — Bareilly: 249 km. Second attempt successful. Arrival at 10:05 local time.
11 June 2004: Bareilly-Gorakhpur: 436 km.
12 June 2004: Gorakhpur — — Patna — Baghdogra : 552 km. Departure at 08:30 local time. Arrival at 16:10 local time. Total distance since start: 10,150 km
13 June 2004: Baghdogra — Guwahati : 330 km. Delays due to bad weather
14 June 2004: Bad weather for the whole week. Flight clearances need to be renewed. Jones considers returning to Delhi using a commercial flight.
15 June 2004: Jones arrives in Delhi. Trying to recoup and rethink the plan. New flights will be over hills and jungles. Weather is bad.
21 June 2004: Baghdogra — Guwahati: 330 km. Jones departure at 0353 and arrival at Guwahati in monsoon rain. Flight time: 3 hrs 40 minutes.
21 June 2004: Rain continues. Total distance travelled since start: 10,480 km Route now changes to Australia as the final destination due to difficulties and bad weather.
1–5 October 2004: Barry Jones returns to India to re-evaluate mission. Decision is made to abandon effort.

Remaining route

This is the list of the unfinished part of the expedition:

India — Imphal
Burma — Mandalay Intl
Laos — Luang Prabang
Vietnam — Noibai Intl
China — Wuxu — Baiyun
Hong Kong — Hong Kong Intl
China — Gaoqi — Changle — Lishe — Hongqiao — Liuting — Beijing Intl — Zhoushuizi — Taoxian — Dafangshen — Taiping
Russia — Igatevo — Sokoc — Ugolny — Provideniya Bay
Alaska — Tin City — Nome — Koyuk — Pitka — Minchumina — Cantwell — Gulkana
Canada — Burwash — Atlin — Dease Lake — Smithers — Belia Coola — Puntzi Mountain — Pemberton — Abbotsford
USA — Plan not finalised
Canada — Mirabel Intl —- Bagotville — Rimouski — Sept-Iles — Wabush — Schefferville — Kuujjuaq — Quaqtaq — Kimmirut — Iqaluit — Pangnirtung — Qikiqtarjuaq
Greenland — Kangerlussuaq — Kulusuk
Iceland — Reykjavik — Hornafjordur
Denmark — Vagar
UK — Kirkwall — Wick — Inverness — Leuchars — Edinburgh — Carlisle — Dishforth — Middle Wallop

Technical specifications

The Magni gyrocopter model: Magni VPM M16 (Similar to the Magni M16 - 2000) used in the expedition had the following specifications:

Weight: Empty weight 261/266 kg, maximum take-off gross weight 450 kg
Maximum speed 115 mph
Cruising speed 90 mph
Absolute ceiling 4000 m
Service ceiling 3500 m
Take-off roll 70 m
Landing roll from 0 to 30 m
Rate of climb 5 m/s
Fuel tank capacity 72 L
Rotor diameter 8230/8535 mm
Propeller diameter 1700 mm
Overall width 1800 mm
Overall length 4655 mm
Overall height 2600 mm
Airframe: chrome-alloy aeronautical 4130 steel, tig welded. Fiberglass fairing, wheel pants and instrument panel.
Seat: epoxy / fiberglass with integral fuel-tank,
Instruments: rotor tachometer, altimeter, air speed indicator, Flydat and fuel gauge
Engine used for expedition: 914 Rotax Turbo, 4 cylinders, 4 stroke, water cooled, 115 hp, with electric starter and mechanical prerotator. (Also available: Rotax 912 ULS, 100 Hp)
Propeller: three-blades, carbon fiber, ground adjustable pitch.
Rotor: two-blades, composite.
Controls: double. Electric trim.

External links

Global Eagle pictures from Italian autogyro club

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